Tag: variety

Most of my reviews are of historical fiction … more specifically, Christian historical romance novels. I primarily read this genre for the following reasons:

I love historical settings. To me, the past is a completely different world that actually existed. There were no “good old days”? Think again!

I love romance. I don’t know why, but without romance, I just don’t enjoy the story as much. Of course, there are plenty of non-romantic books I’ve enjoyed … okay, more like three. Or two. Maybe -5.

I love clean fiction. I’m actually not big on Christian fiction unless it’s done well (it’s rarely done well), but a title being labelled “Christian fiction” is a good way of determining that it’s clean. Well, usually …

Those are pretty decent reasons, right? Still, I argue that reading too much of any genre is a bad idea.

I’m not saying that reading more of one kind of book than another is a bad thing. I quite enjoy my Christian historical romances, and I want to keep reading them. However, I’m going to start reading books of a variety of genres.

Yesterday I went to the library and picked up The Selection (dystopian romance), Oregon Brides (basically what I always read), Lizzy & Jane (contemporary), the Red Fairy Book (children’s fairy tales), and Australian Shepherd (nonfiction animal care). Even so, I honestly could have done better for variety (I do have a couple books on hold that are a little different, but they haven’t arrived yet).

My advice to you would be to go to the library, pick up several random books (do a better job at it than I did, though!), and bring them home. That seems a pretty decent way to try new kinds of books to me! And it’s fun.

Anyway, on with my reasons why you should read varied genres.

Your mind will stop growing. Statistics have proven that people who don’t at least try more than one genre of book are stupid. Okay, I made that up, but trying different things and expanding your horizons and all that is generally considered a good idea.

It’s unhealthy. Seriously. Your mind needs more than one kind of book just like your stomach needs more than one kind of food.

You will miss out on some different perspectives. The same genre, even if written by different authors, is generally biased in one way or another about humankind or about a certain chapter in humankind or something like that.

You will miss out on some cool books. I never thought I’d enjoy The Hunger Games, but I really did! There are a lot of amazing books out there in every genre. Don’t just read one kind!